The North East is a major contributor to the UK’s fast-growing digital sector.
The North East is a major contributor to the UK’s fast-growing digital sector, with more than 3,000 digital businesses including start- ups, SMEs and global players such as Sage, Accenture and Atom Bank. Together these businesses contribute over £2bn and employ in excess of 32,000 people.
With established tech clusters, support programmes, incubation space and funding, County Durham and its surrounding area has a strong support ecosystem attracting many new entrants into this vibrant industry.
Business Durham is part of the key strategic support mechanisms in the region, we offer bespoke one-to-one assistance as well as key support programmes including Finance Durham and the Durham Business Growth programme. Support also comes from Sunderland Software City and the North East and Tees Valley Digital Catapult.
In terms of connectivity, we offer excellent ICT infrastructure with the third fastest broadband speed in the UK and the fastest in England.
A £38 million project piloted by Digital Durham and BT Openreach is increasing coverage of superfast broadband to local homes and offices, while a partnership between Durham County Council and Gateshead Council is using Building Digital UK (BDUK) funding to supply businesses with high-speed broadband.
We have several exciting new developments in the pipeline in Durham, including a new digital business park at Aykley Heads and some state-of-the-art city centre incubation space at Milburngate. We also have plans in place for a leadership and mentoring programme to help digital businesses scale up, a new Durham Digital Festival and digital business network, and we’re strongly supporting local colleges and universities to develop a continual pipeline of digital talent.
If you are thinking about moving your business to County Durham, give us a call on 03000 261261.
Fintech in County Durham
In and around County Durham, several fintech sub-sectors are performing well including software, payments, data analytics, platforms and cybersecurity. There are an estimated 3,100 fintech-related jobs in the region, contributing £171m of GVA. Regional fintech support organisations Dynamo and Fintech North offer excellent opportunities for collaboration, while support is also offered through our five local universities.
Over recent years County Durham has become a well-known location in fintech nationally and internationally due to Atom Bank – one of the highest-profile fintech brands – establishing its HQ here. Durham University Business School is also a major player in this field, renowned worldwide for its pioneering work in blockchain
and data analytics for risk pricing.
At Business Durham, we’re involved in several exciting projects to support our growing fintech cluster. We’re working alongside key partners including Durham University, Newcastle University, Fintech North, Dynamo, Tech Nation, Digital Catapult, Software City, New College Durham and the Department for International Trade to develop these projects and a strong support ecosystem for local businesses.
Other skills development programmes and facilities include:
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Skills Bootcamp in Digital
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North East Ambition
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£42m Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science facility at Durham University
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£30m National Innovation Centre for Data in The Catalyst, Newcastle, co-funded by the government and Newcastle University.
The North East’s five universities also have expertise in the following areas.
We have new premises at Milburngate and, later, at Aykley Heads which would be ideal for future fintech businesses and we’re helping the sector to take advantage of new funding opportunities
Growth plans for the sector
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Development of the new Aykley Heads Digital Business Park
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Creation of a pioneering fintech accelerator and dedicated digi-tech
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incubation office space. Mentoring/coaching programme for senior
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managers involving existing Durham businesses as mentors
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Further development of the local fintech ecosystem
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Creation of a digital hub business directory and marketing support
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Events programme designed to showcase fintech businesses
Regional networks and support
Cost savings to your business
County Durham offers significant labour and property cost savings for advanced manufacturing operations compared to UK regions and global hubs. A variety of incentives, industry support bodies and networking events make the area an attractive option. An important specialism for the region is precision engineering in the aerospace, rail, automotive, and oil and gas sectors.
Competitive salary costs
Labour costs for a software programmer are 40-50% lower than in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and Munich, and more than 30% lower than in Greater London.
Low property costs
Property costs are more than three-quarters cheaper than in London.
Least expensive location
According to the Financial Times Benchmarking Study, a typical 35-
person software operation in the North East would save £0.93 million per annum in costs compared to Greater London.
Centre for Software Reliability
Cloud Innovation Centre
Centre for Doctoral Training in Cloud Computing for Big Data
Institute for Data Science (IDAS)
Centre for Digital Innovation
Cyber Security Research Group (NCSRG)
BIM Academy (Northumbria University)
Research and innovation
The North East has several centres of excellence that focus on the digital sector including:
Key digital & fintech sites in County Durham
Milburngate, Durham City
Located in Durham City, on the banks of the River Wear, Milburngate is a unique opportunity to take advantage of high-specification commercial property in the North East’s most prestigious development.
NETPark (The North East Technology Park) Innovation District, Sedgefield
One of the UK’s premier science, engineering, and technology parks. It provides the right mix of infrastructure, collaborative opportunities and support for science, engineering, and technology companies.
Tanfield Lea Business Centre
Office space in Stanley offering forty one fully serviced offices from 135 - 1,787 sq ft.
Salvus House
Award winning office space offering twenty four offices ranging in size from 164 to 4,274 sq ft. Located in Durham City.
Some of the businesses we've helped
Inspiral Cycles’
“Business support helps you step back and look at the bigger picture. It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day tasks, but having someone from outside the business to discuss ideas with, to push us forward, has been crucial.”
Fiona Ewing
Founder
Finance Durham
The benefit of speaking to Maven about the Finance Durham fund is the flexibility of the fund on offer, which means we can invest from a small amount up to several millions via equity or debt.
Michael Vassallo
Maven Capital Partners
Power Roll
Maven helped us in terms of facilities by introductions into Business Durham, and also the funding opportunities here in County Durham, which really did help pull a package of measures together, which made the premises we're in today, Jade Business Park, that compelling proposition.
Neil Spann
CEO
TinkleGuard
For anyone looking to develop their business idea, DCI provides the resources and community to make that journey less daunting and more successful.
Angela Davidson
Founder
Empowerment Learning Ltd
The DCI programme has been fantastic. The personal support, mentoring, and different perspectives from the cohort have validated my belief that what I'm doing is correct and has a real impact.
Kelly Walton
Founder
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Reign Accounting Ltd
The support and friendships I've developed through DCI have been invaluable. Learning from other start-ups and having a community to lean on has made a significant difference in my entrepreneurial journey
Nicole Collins
Founder
AImploy
The DCI program has been instrumental in our journey. The networking opportunities and support from DCI contributors have been invaluable in shaping AImploy into the company it is today.
Arjun Cheruvally
Co-founder
Marmax Products
We have been delighted with the support that Business Durham and their partners have provided our company and with additional funding, we hope to further develop our working practices to safeguard our existing business and expand our capabilities to meet new customer demands and expectations.
Dave Johnson
Managing Director
Redditch Medical
NETPark is a fantastic place to do business in terms of facilities, potential for growth and for collaboration.
Steve Brown
Managing Director
Tekgem
The facilities and ancillary business services here are second to none and the campus feel of the science park suits the culture within the company.
Ian Gemski
Director
SEEDS
The ecosystem in NETPark is just right for us; SEEDS first came here because of its partnership work with the CPI and now our vision is to have a busy lab facility developing various applications and licensing them out to companies.
Peter Chalder-Wood
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Magnitude Biosciences
We expect to more than double the team in Sedgefield to 45 over the next two to three years, with a larger commercial team allowing us to expand our global footprint.
Dr Fozia Saleem
CEO
Teescraft Engineering
Teescraft Engineering has been a major employer in County Durham for a number of years and I’m delighted that, with grant support through the County Durham Growth Fund, the company is embarking on ambitious plans to significantly expand.
Hazel Sykes
Business Durham
ATT Fabrications
We knew we had the space to add new machines which would not only improve productivity and efficiency but also allow us to add new products and processes, the County Durham Growth Fund helped this happen.
Andrew Devlin
ATT Fabrications
AAA Caring Caretaker
The Caring Caretaker is a company that’s grown from one to a team of 41 and is now, with grant support from the County Durham Growth Fund, in the process of taking its business journey to the next stage, moving to much larger premises and creating a further 10 jobs, cementing its long-term future here in County Durham.
Sarah Slaven
Managing Director, Business Durham
Renovo Solutions
We’ve been incredibly lucky to have secured financial investment from Business Durham which really has been crucial to the growth of the business and fast-tracked our plans in such a short space of time.
Antony Gray
Founder
Ashgarth Engineering
The grant we’ve received from the County Durham Growth Fund has been invaluable to us as without it we probably would have only been able to purchase one machine.
Niall Ash
Director
TO Mounter
We were looking at investing in new machinery which would enable us to expand our client base, and our accountant mentioned the County Durham Growth Fund to us.
Lisa Mounter
General Manager
Creator
Investing in this additional space means we now own our future – we’re not in anyone else’s hands and that’s a fantastic position to be in.
Ryan Carter
Founder
Useful Information
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Business Durham is the business support service for Durham County Council, helping to deliver more and better jobs and a strong competitive economy.
Contact our friendly team for help with your business.
